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Trusted insurance for professionals and businesses.
Policies made for industry, by industry.
Award Winning Insurance
Professional indemnity insurance and business insurance for Australian professional
Working with over 40 associations
Insuring Australians for over 60 years
100% Australian owned
Hear from our customers
Don't take our word for it, hear from some of these people that have experienced our service first-hand.
11/2023
Always helpful and have never had any issues with claims. We have dealt with them for a long time and they understand our business.
01/01/24
As a practitioner and building owner I have used Guild Insurance and have been satisfied with all claims made from lodgement through to completion of remedial work and finalisation of the claim.
19/11/23
Process was simple, smooth and easy! As a new provider, it was so helpful having an experienced person on the other side of the phone, discussing my insurance needs with me.
We provide industry-leading specialist insurance
Our insurance policies are designed to support you. We have a range of covers to comprehensively protect your livelihood and your reputation.
Professional indemnity
Protects you for what you do in your profession.
Business insurance
Protects all aspects of your business – property, people and the interruptions.
Professional indemnity insurance covers you for your civil liability when a claim arises from a breach of your professional duty. For many professional policies at Guild Insurance combine professional indemnity, public liability, and product liability to cover more of your professional duties. Business insurance, on the other hand, is a broader category that encompasses various types of coverage designed to protect businesses from a wide range of risks. This can include property damage, theft, and liability claims from third parties.
For professionals providing advice or services:
- Assess your service risk: Evaluate the potential risks associated with your professional advice or services. Consider the possibility and implications of your advice or actions leading to a client's physical, psychological, or financial detriment. Reflect on the likelihood and consequences of a situation where an error or omission on your part could lead to legal action.
- Understand legal requirements: Familiarise yourself with the legal and regulatory landscape relevant to your profession. Is holding professional indemnity insurance a legal requirement or an industry standard in your field?
For certain contract positions and many allied health professionals regulated under Ahpra require professional indemnity and/or public liability insurance. - Consider your financial exposure: If faced with a legal claim, could you afford the legal defence and potential damages out of pocket?
For business owners protecting their operations:
- Identify your business assets: Determine which physical assets are crucial to your business operations, such as property, equipment, and inventory. Consider the consequences if these assets were damaged, stolen or lost.
- Evaluate liability risks: How likely is it that someone could be injured or their property damaged because of your business activities? This includes both public liability and product liability.
- Consider business interruptions: Think about the resilience of your business in the face of unforeseen events that might force temporary closure. How would such interruptions impact your financial stability?
If you are unsure of the cover you require, please contact us on 1800 810 213 to speak to an insurance specialist.
We can also cover your
Home & contents
Workers compensation
Pet insurance
Why choose Guild Insurance?
Specialist policies for your Profession
Tailored insurance solutions for diverse professions
Claims made easy
Streamlined claim processes for quick resolution
Expert legal advice with Meridian Lawyers
Professional legal support from trusted Meridian Lawyers
Our policies are made for your industry, endorsed by industry pros and updated regularly.
See how we can help you in your industry.
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Claims made easy
It's why you're insured after all, so we've made the claims process quick and easy for you.
Lodge claim online or over the phone
Claim anytime anywhere
Get your unique claim number
Track your claim
A claims specialist will be in touch
We'll be in touch within 48 hours
Learn how to avoid claims at RiskHQ
Learning from chiropractic claims
Guild Insurance spends a significant amount of time analysing the chiropractic claims reported to us. This analysis helps us to understand what patients complain about, factors which might make some patients more likely to complain, and what actions from practitioners make it challenging to defend these complaints.
Following this analysis, Guild, in conjunction with the Australian Chiropractors Association, creates risk messages and learnings to share with and educate chiropractors, with the aim of reducing complaints.
The following details Guild’s key learnings for the chiropractic profession based on this claims analysis.
Record Keeping
All chiropractors are aware of their requirement to keep detailed clinical records. Yet, Guild’s claims experience shows that many are not keeping records to the required level of detail.
Clinical records serve not only as a regulatory requirement but also as essential evidence in defending against allegations of harm or wrongdoing. Missing details can significantly weaken a defence and increase the cost of managing and settling claims.
Additionally, thorough record keeping supports quality treatment. Without a documented history, assessment outcomes, and patient response, chiropractors may rely on memory—which is never perfect—leading to poor clinical decisions.
Chiropractors should refer to the record keeping resources on the Ahpra website: www.ahpra.gov.au/resources/managing-health-records.
Informed Consent
Informed consent, like record keeping, is often not done well enough to meet the required standard. The key word here is informed.
A patient must be properly informed through a conversation with their chiropractor about their condition, treatment options, expected outcomes, and risks. Only then can they give true informed consent.
Simply having a patient sign a form is not enough—the form is a support tool, not a substitute for the discussion.
Communication
Communication issues are a common factor in patient complaints. Even when not directly mentioned, investigations often reveal that poor communication played a role.
Chiropractors should use language their patients understand—avoiding jargon and acronyms—and consider using visual aids like diagrams or models.
Maintain professionalism in all communication. While building rapport is important, conversations should remain appropriate and not cross professional boundaries.
Professional Conduct
Guild has noted an increase in complaints focusing less on clinical outcomes and more on perceived professional behaviour.
Patients have high expectations of how health professionals conduct themselves. The Shared Code of Conduct released in 2022 outlines these expectations for chiropractors and other professions.
You can review the Code of Conduct at: www.ahpra.gov.au/resources/code-of-conduct/shared-code-of-conduct
Chiropractors must maintain boundaries in both behaviour and communication, avoiding excessive familiarity and never exploiting the professional-patient dynamic.
Clinical Decision Making
All treatment decisions must be in the best interest of the patient. Chiropractors are not a solution for every condition and must refer patients elsewhere when necessary.
If a patient requires care outside a chiropractor’s expertise, the practitioner should refer them to a more suitable provider and clearly explain why.
Chiropractors must stay within their scope of practice and ensure they are suitably trained for any treatments or advice they offer. Professional development should always align with this scope.
- Chiropractors
- Professional
- Claims
- Clinical Records
- Communication
- Informed Consent
FAQs
The law governs that any professional exercise the required skill to an appropriate level expected by that profession. A professional may be liable for financial loss, injury or damage arising from an act, error or omission of fault if the professional has not acted to the required level of skill deemed in that profession. Failure through this may result in the claimant (person who suffered the loss) be awarded for that loss, damage or injury.
Many professions require you to hold a professional indemnity insurance policy by law, such as Ahpra registered professions, but can be for other industries such as financial institutions also. Please check with your registration body or associations of your profession to know if it is required by law to have professional indemnity insurance. It is often also required by companies who take on contract workers that are not governed under the companies own insurance policy. It is acceptable for a company to ask you as the professional contractor to provide evidence of cover for professional indemnity before starting the contract period.
As stated above professional indemnity insurance covers you for breaches in relation to your professional duty. Liability insurance covers you for activity that results in personal injury or property damage as a result of your business activities that do not relate to your specific profession. An example may be someone who trips and is injured from spilled water within your office may be covered under liability, because it is your duty of care as business person to provide a safe environment. Whereas a person who suffers a loss or injury because of your professional treatment in relation to your job has caused it would usually be consider as an indemnity breach.
Generally business insurance is to cover the physical assets of your business for material damage loss and options for theft cover. It can also include cover for financial loss due to business interruption. Usually basic insurance does not cover breach of duty or flood cover, but if you speak to an insurance specialist it can often be added to your policy for a nominal fee.
Depending on the policy you are taking out, covers will often vary. At Guild insurance we specialise in making a policy to suit your business so that you are not over paying for covers you wouldn't normally need. The best thing to do is call 1800 810 213 to speak to an insurance specialist, they can find out what activities and structure your business is in to then provide you with adequate cover for you.
A certificate of currency (or COC for short) is a written document that confirms that your insurance policy is current and valid at a specific date and time. At Guild we provide easy access to your COC at any time within a few clicks of our online portal PolicyHub. If you are a new customer we can provide you with one post purchase.
Meridian Lawyers services available to you
The Meridian team provide tailored legal services to Guild Insurance customers.
They're experts in advising and assisting Guild's insured customers with their corporate and commercial, employment, dispute resolution and property needs.
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